{Caleb: You holding up okay?}
Diglett Basin was a fair distance from Glazed Volcano. Even with Salamence's speed, it would take a full five hours to get there.
{Terrence: Of course! My City Lord skill is seriously OP.}
Terrence's tone brimmed with pride. It was thanks to that skill that he had managed to survive in such a chaotic place.
Hearing this, Caleb glanced at the distance between the two regions and roughly calculated the travel time in his head.
Assuming nothing unexpected happened, if he started marching now, relying on his overwhelming advantage in territory level and troop stats, it would still take at least half a month to fight his way through to Terrence's location.
He shared his plan honestly with Terrence.
Terrence was thrilled. He couldn't wait to meet up with Caleb, who gave him a strong sense of security. Though that's what he thought, his response was:
{Terrence: No rush, really. I can hold out a while longer. Just be careful not to get backdoored while you're away.}
Caleb wasn't worried. The entire Glazed Volcano was now his domain. Unlike before, the map panel now notified him of everything happening in the region.
For example, if enemy troops crossed into Glazed Volcano, or if a low-level resource spot upgraded, he'd be informed.
More importantly, he also unlocked a new feature: outdoor facility construction...
Things like Flame Traps, Energy Turrets, Defensive Walls, and so on... all effective tools for halting enemy advances.
A few thoughts flashed through his mind...
{Caleb: Any news from Hatsumi?}
Just as he sent the message, a new avatar lit up in his friend list.
Right after, a message from Hatsumi came through:
{Hatsumi: You two move fast, huh?}
Caleb quickly created a three-person group chat. The three of them exchanged information and immediately submitted an alliance request...
{Hatsumi: There's something I'm not sure if I should mention…}
{Terrence: What is it?}
{Hatsumi: Do you guys remember Ye Fan and Baek Gyeol?}
Both Terrence and Caleb agreed.
After a moment's thought, Caleb added:
{Caleb: Are they planning to mess with me again?}
{Hatsumi: How'd you know?}
{Caleb: Those two are stubborn by nature. I grabbed Celebi right in front of them and snatched the #1 spot... Of course they're bound to be bitter. Even if others forget, those two are definitely the types to hold grudges.}
Hatsumi didn't waste words. She agreed:
{Hatsumi: Exactly. I heard from a friend that Ye Fan hired a bunch of people and is planning to team up to ambush you in this Instance.}
Caleb fell silent for a moment, then replied:
{Caleb: Even knowing that… the both of you are still willing to ally with me?}
Caleb had initiated the alliance request. As allies, his name would now appear on both Hatsumi's and Terrence's territory panels.
Caleb himself wasn't afraid, but if Hatsumi and Terrence chose to side with him, they'd almost certainly face harassment from those two later on.
Hatsumi was sharp to begin with, and though Terrence seemed a bit goofy on the surface, he wasn't actually dumb. As soon as Caleb said that, they both instantly understood what he meant.
{Terrence: I do.}
Was Terrence's immediate reply.
Then, grinning, he quipped:
{Terrence: Don't worry, bro. I've got your back! Anyone who wants to mess with you will have to step over my dead body first!}
Back in the Transformation and Substitution Instance, Terrence had spent three years with Caleb. Though he was in the body of a Smeargle, his mind was still human.
Male friendships were simple: if you clicked and got along, you were friends. Add in their similar ages and the fact that Caleb had taken good care of him back then, and Terrence didn't hesitate for a second.
Caleb: "…"
Reading their messages, Hatsumi couldn't help but laugh. She had entered Infinite World much earlier than the two... Though her physical age hadn't changed, mentally, she was practically old enough to be their grandma.
But thanks to her youthful appearance, nobody could possibly see her as a square-dancing auntie.
Caleb and Terrence were only about twenty, which was still college age back on Earth. So to her, they were juniors through and through.
With that in mind, Hatsumi replied cheerfully:
{Hatsumi: Then we'll all look out for each other from now on!}
After settling the alliance matter, the three shifted the conversation to the current Instance.
Hatsumi's territory was located in the upper-right corner, in a region called Blastoise Swamp, forming a rough triangle with Caleb's and Terrence's bases.
Caleb checked the area using the map, then marked out the hidden resource nodes and enemy territory locations for both Hatsumi and Terrence.
At this stage, most players' territory levels were between Lv1 and Lv3. Without Caleb's special ability, they could only gather resources from nodes outside their bases.
Resource nodes were limited, that is, they were far from enough to meet everyone's needs. Which meant fierce battles over resources were inevitable.
Combined with other factors, their territory upgrade speed would naturally slow down more and more.
As a result, Caleb's level advantage would likely last a long time.
Thinking this through, he checked his barracks troop capacity. After unifying Glazed Volcano, the cap had increased from 200 000 to 5 million.
After a moment's thought, Caleb made a decision:
{Caleb: I'll send each of you 500 000 Lv5 troops as reinforcements. They'll arrive in five hours.}
Both of them froze for a second when they saw that.
{Hatsumi: Where did you get so many soldiers? The resource nodes in just one region shouldn't be enough, right?}
Higher-level troops required exponentially more resources to recruit, not to mention top-tier units like Salamence.
Hearing this, Caleb didn't hold back. He directly sent them the info for his title, Flower Planter, leaving both of them stunned.
After some casual chatting, Terrence finally replied:
{Terrence: Don't worry man, we won't let you down!}
He understood Caleb wasn't just sending troops to protect them; he wanted them to use this opportunity to unify Diglett Basin and Blastoise Swamp.
Caleb replied with a simple "Mm."
Having confirmed that neither of them had been eliminated, he closed the friend panel. After dispatching two waves of Salamences, only 180 000 Pokémon soldiers remained in his barracks.
But now, his food resource count had dropped back to zero.
Caleb sighed helplessly, waved off Celebi and the others to go play on their own, and trudged back to the farm plot to grind out food resources.
Mewtwo watched this scene, gave a slight shake of his head, floated up to the rooftop of a nearby building, and lazily basked in the sun...